Gorillas in danger

Conservationists devote not only many years but also hard work in central Africa to prevent gorillas from becoming extinct completely. Today there are less than 700 mountain gorillas on the earth.
We describe the gorillas in our thought as fiercely furious savage animal. In real life gorilla is more calm and gently than we expect. They spend their thirty to forty year-lives in forest, sitting thoughtfully and eating thistles or bamboo shoots. Mountain gorillas typically give birth for the first time at around ten years of age and then reproduce only once every four years. Females are only able to conceive for three days in each month, and males are not sexually mature until the age of twelve or fifteen. Newborn mountain gorillas are as vulnerable and dependent as human babies.
The American Natural History museum encouraged Belguim to establish Africa’s first national park. Even though the national park worked efficiently, civil war, which broke out in 1960, forced the Park`s activity to stop. Stopped the Park’s activity gave hunters a chance of hunting gorillas. Many gorillas were captured by the hunters because of tourists’ interest in souvenirs of gorillas’ heads and hands. Unfortunately, twenty one years after the onset of civil war, there were only 250 gorillas left.
The conservation society in New York City began “gorilla tourism” and trained the gorillas to be accustomed to people to solve the problem that the rapidly decreasing number of gorillas. Training the gorillas gives chance to people to approach it closely and they pay large amounts to see them.
Today gorillas Park is not only profitable for the park staffs but also necessary for gorillas. The staffs need the money and the gorillas need protection. One man said: “When I was a little boy I heard that gorillas were men who were very bad and lived in forest; but gorillas are better than us. They are peaceful. When they fight they have a good reason. We fight for nothing.” In reality, it’s right.


Kh.Saruul.